When It's Dark, Look to the Stars
by leglesslegolass
Summary: Thea Wren can't remember who she was before the age of 10. For years she's grown up under the tutelage of thieves and criminals, but when she is betrayed and taken into custody by one Lieutenant of the Interstellar Federation, James Hawkins, the two are propelled into something that is much bigger than either of them could have anticipated.
1. Chapter 1

Hello, everyone! Forewarning, I've never written a fanfic before, but I can assure you that I am an avid reader, so I'd like to think I know what I'm doing.

This story came about on a whim and I thought I'd start it instead of studying for my Ecology test (procrastinators rule!).

Please review and let me know how it is!

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Thea Wren can't remember who she was before the age of 10. For years, she's grown up under the tutelage of thieves and criminals, but when she is betrayed and taken into custody by one Lieutenant of the Interstellar Alliance, James Hawkins, the two are propelled into something that is much bigger than either of them could have ever anticipated.

* * *

 **When It's Dark, Look to the Stars**

"Come on Spratt, you know I'm good for my word. I delivered last month didn't I? And for the love of the Galaxy, it was the whole shipment wasn't it? I bet it fetched you twice as much as what any of your other thugs brought you."

Thea eyed the lanky man from across their dented wooden table. He had arranged for them to meet here. It was a public place where uncooperative outbursts were more likely to be noticed by loitering police officials, but just shady enough were passersby were less inclined to ask questions, weary of what would happen if they did.

Thelonious Spratt, crime lord and black market dealer, sat across from her, his long spindly fingers tapping methodically on the surface of the table. Every time one of his claw-like nails struck the wood she suppressed a habitual tick, the gesture eating at her already fraying patience.

"It was not the target I told you to acquire." She hated his monotone voice and how it seemed to be forever stuck at a level of zero inflection. It portrayed disinterest with just a hint of chastisement. It made her feel like a child deserving of a slap to the hand.

"The target you so kindly told me to 'acquire'", she mocked, "was unobtainable and you know that. I wasn't about to risk my neck for something I knew I wasn't gonna be able to get. I promised I'd bring you something, and I did. What was so wrong with my delivery?"

Thea crossed her arms as she looked at him, trying to be as menacing as possible so he wouldn't be able to sense her fear as much as she knew she could.

This last delivery had been an utter disaster, but she wasn't about to admit that to him. It took real nerve to admit it to herself and she wasn't about to confess her stupidity to her conniving employer no matter how much she depended on the errands he sent her on.

She had been in his employ for over ten years now. She'd been a stowaway on one of his trading vessels. The one she chose to board had been carrying a shipment of silks and furs (the illegal kind from endangered species) from one planet to the next. How a starving ten-year-old had managed to get past armed guards and onto a ship that belonged to the most notorious of crime lords North of the Cignas Cross? She couldn't recall.

Even though she couldn't remember the circumstances of her arrival on the ship, she remembered feeling completely terrified when she had found herself in his quarters, interrupting a business transaction (also of the illegal kind) with a very important client. A woman standing near Spratt had pulled out a blaster and aimed it at her without any hesitation as if she was more than used to shooting scared children. Thea remembered how her body had started to convulse with an upheaval of tears and pure fear. She could recall the metal ting of the hammer clicking into place before it was followed by a curt and commanding, 'Wait'.

Spratt had spared her life all those years ago and here she was, his trained dog that was eternally at his beck and call. Others under his employ or within his ring referred to her as "the Heir", a title she both deserved and despised. Spratt had taken her under his dark wing and taught her everything he knew about all things distasteful. She knew how to swindle a con artist and steal from a thief. She knew how to destroy a man's life with one word and how to kill, if it was ever necessary.

Thea hated what he had shaped her into. Whoever she had been before she met him, that person was long gone, and even if she did know her true identity, there would be no way of going back to it now. Her aliases were wanted on three different planets in the Galaxy and it was getting harder and harder for her to show her face here on her home planet of Mosli. She's tried to convince herself that she didn't care, but whenever children saw her and ran in the opposite direction, she could feel the remains of her humanity slowly slip away piece by piece.

And it was all because of this man who sat before her, tapping his manicured claws incessantly on the table top. She stared into his eyes, daring to hold his gaze until he responded to her. But he didn't, instead his tiger-eyes flickered around the room, a gesture she was very familiar with, a gesture that signaled something was about to happen. Something that wouldn't be good. Even though she lacked his heightened senses, she felt it too. The atmosphere of the dive began to quiet down. Clinking glasses froze in midair and raucous laughter ended uneasily.

The two burly men to Spratt's left and right went rigid and their grips found their hidden blasters within their jackets.

"Thea."

Spratt saying her real name pulled her attention away from the silence of the room.

"What?" She hissed between her teeth.

He stood up and adjusted his velvet suit, flicking away an infinitesimal fleck of debris. "I had great hopes for you and I have to say I am sorely disappointed with how you've repaid my tutelage and hospitality."

Thea eyed him, momentarily confused by his confession and reprimand, but then she understood and sprung up from her seat. "Why you black-hearted, manipulative –"

Before she could finish, the closed door to the bar was kicked inward and men in white and blue uniforms stormed in. Those who had proper sense rushed to get out of their way, some stowing away their knives and other illegal weapons before they were seen.

Thea just stood there in the middle of the room, as her whole world, her cruel and wicked world, crumbled to pieces around her. She was in a daze. The man who had practically raised her, had saved her life, and the man whom she hated, yet was the closest thing she had to family, had betrayed her and turned her into the Interstellar Federation. In a matter of seconds officers had flanked her and grabbed her arms, pinning them behind her back.

"That was a little, um, anticlimactic?" One of them muttered.

Thea was too shocked to put up a fight and at this point, with officers blocking her every exit, there was no logic in trying to escape.

An officer scoffed as he readjusted his grip on her wrist, "You're telling me. Whose idea was it to bring 15 officers?"

"The Lieutenant's going to be bummed. I overheard him talking to the Captain. He said he was looking forward to a little tussle between the two of them."

"A tussle?" One jeered. "Who the hell says tussle anymore?"

"I do. It's a valid word in this situation."

"You're such a cretin."

"Cretin? Who says cretin?"

"Shut up." Thea ground out.

"Keep your mouth shut." One of them barked. "You're under arrest."

"Obviously." She said, condescendingly.

The other twisted the skin on her wrist in opposite directions, bringing tears to her eyes.

"You're gonna have to try harder than that." She bit back.

Before the officer could take her up on her offer, a clear voice rang through the room, a voice that demanded attention and was given it.

"Men, at attention!"

The resounding echo of boots stomping together reverberated through the room. Thea's green eyes snapped up to see a man standing in the doorway. His features were drowned by the light flooding in, but his posture branded him as a commanding officer; assertive and deserving of respect.

As he walked further into the room his features became more clear. Thea thought he couldn't be much older than her. She didn't know if it was the way he walked with a slight bounce in his step or the way the angles of his face hadn't completely hardened, but he was young, she could tell.

He stopped right in front of her, his green-blue eyes searching her face, almost as if he were studying her.

"Thea Wren?"

He addressed her by her real name. _Spratt. That bastard_. She thought.

"Yeah?" She looked straight at him, unyielding.

"I'm Lieutenant James Hawkins." He said matter-of-factly. "And I don't take kindly to those who steal from me."

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Hope you liked this first chapter! I will be posting the next chapter within the next few days!

Happy reading,

Legless Legolass


	2. Chapter 2

_What a pompous prick_. She thought.

"Well, I'm Thea and I don't take kindly to those who accuse me of something, whether I did or didn't do it." She tried to struggle again against the officers' grasps. "You know this is all so very annoying. What do you say to letting me go and doing this some other day, hmm?"

Lieutenant Hawkins leaned in close to her face and gave her a smug smile, "This an inconvenience for you?"

"As a matter of fact," she forcefully yanked one of her arms free from its hold, "it is!"

She heard the shocked inhale of breath from one of the guards just seconds before she landed a punch on the side of the Lieutenant's pretty face.

It was as if it happened in slow motion. Her knuckles collided with his cheekbone just enough for his head to whip slowly to the side. She watched his green-blue eyes close like he was more annoyed by her left hook than in pain by it. He deliberately made an effort to turn his head back towards her. Thea only had eyes for him, but she could imagine the look on everyone else's faces in the room – looks that showed their uneasiness and personified their frozen silence. Assaulting a ranking officer of the Interstellar Federation was a prosecutable offense.

Lieutenant Hawkins rubbed a hand against his already reddening cheek.

"That's a nice shiner you'll have there, _Lieutenant_."

She mocked his title blatantly, having had no respect for the Federation or its rules before, and this encounter had surely not made her opinions of them any greater. The guard whom she had freed an arm from a minute before grabbed her again, this time with no sense of gentleness. He and his partner then decided to secure her wrists with manacles - Federation grade that shocked the victim when the material was overstretched due to struggle.

They should have done it earlier.

People always underestimated her.

Not that she had anything beyond hate for this 'Lieutenant James Hawkins', but she gave him silent credit for not responding to her punch or her insults. Usually, at this point, her captor had either slammed her in the gut, slapped her across the face, or had had someone else do the dirty work for them. This boy didn't even attempt to make a jab at her. She was impressed, if only slightly, but she didn't know that his temper was reddening just like the bruise on his face.

He knew though that if he mirrored her actions the situation would only get more out-of-hand, and he really, really didn't want that. So instead all he did was flash a smirk at her.

"Something to remember you by then when you're in prison." He retorted, the only retaliation he could allow himself.

Thea watched him as he then looked around at the patrons of the bar, watching him notice for the first time the lowly scum of Mosli that frequented this dump. They were dressed in clothes they had been wearing for weeks. Their hair was greasy and their lopsided tricorns were covered in stains. Everyone looked sallow and harsh. These were people that men, like these officers, rarely gave a second glance unless they had their names and faces on a wanted poster. But the Lieutenant didn't look at them with contempt like she'd thought he would. He looked at them as if they were no different from those of whose galas and balls he must attend. She scoffed at his presumed air of equality. An air that secretly reeked of superiority.

 _You're not fooling anyone, Lieutenant._

With her wrists firmly encircled in electricity reinforced platinum restraints, she knew she definitely wasn't going anywhere except a penitentiary made of stone, steel, and severity, so she saw no harm in delaying her ultimate journey before what could possibly be a lifelong sentence. And she always did like to have a bit of fun.

"So, tell me, _my good Lieutenant_ , what precious thing did I steal from you? Did I hijack something you were guarding or was this something more personal? I have to say I've been known to do both. I really have to regard for my assignments." Thea smiled at him toxically, packing all her condescending hatred into a sugary sweet sneer.

He noticed her terrible smile but didn't see the harm in telling her what she had done, so he indulged her, wanting to witness her reaction.

"You managed to steal twenty barrels of helium-4 from a ship I was charged to see safely off towards the Coral Galaxy two mornings ago. I assume it's being put to better use somewhere else?"

"Oh, I'm never told the destination or reason behind what I take. As long as I'm paid, I don't feel the need to ask questions."

Thea could see this bothered him. It went against everything he must believe in. Honor. Justice. Honesty. Bravery. Loyalty. It made her want to gag. None of those things had ever done her a lick of good.

"Twenty barrels of helium-4 you say? That's pretty impressive. How ever did I manage to sneak those out from under your handsome nose?"

She made a quick step forward and took a playful nip at his nose. She saw his light eyes go dark as his resolve completely disintegrated.

He lunged forward, ready to do anything to shut her up when a commanding voice stopped him.

"At ease, Lieutenant Hawkins."

He was inches away from her face when he heard the resonating voice of his Captain slice through the charged air between him and Thea. Composing himself, he backed away, readjusting his uniform (a nervous habit in front of his superior officer) and turned around to face him.

"Captain Neyo." He saluted. The Captain nodded at his lieutenant fighting the small smile that tried to creep onto his face as he saw the lad visibly relax at his greeting.

Jim reminded the Captain much of himself when he was that age. Ambitious and eager to prove his worth, yet unbelievably tense at the thought of screwing it all up at a moment's notice.

He looked around Lieutenant Hawkins and noticed a girl, well more of a woman really, being held captive by Officers Geenam and Hoth. He stepped towards her, Jim obligingly moving out of his way.

Thea made no effort to conceal her sardonic look. This Captain looked even more ridiculous than his Lieutenant. His white and red uniform was dripping with medals and pendants and there was a gold sash that ran from his right shoulder down to his left hip, the great color signifying his high rank.

With his hands clasped behind his back, the captain eyed her much like his lieutenant did, studying her in a way that made her feel more like she was a monster from one of those Galactic Zoos than a normal, albeit criminal, 21-year-old girl.

"I'd salute you, Captain, but as you see, your Lieutenant has so kindly restrained me. My deepest apologies." She bowed low.

Without missing a beat, he responded cordially, "None taken, my lady."

This time it was Thea who looked at him like he was an alien in a zoo and she burst out laughing, taking her guards off-guard, so to speak.

"Oh my stars! Captain, you're funny!"

She straightened suddenly after the laughing spell and stepped closer to him quickly, her countenance immediately hardening, "But I assure you, I am no lady."

"Captain, this is the thief who smuggled the barrels off the RLS Andromeda." Lieutenant Hawkins reported urgently but Captain Neyo simply nodded, keeping his eyes on Thea, neither unintimidated by her threat nor her following glare.

How could someone so young look so hard?

The severity of her stare and the shadows of her young eyes gave nothing and everything away all at once; Loss, and loneliness. Anger and sadness. An overwhelming instinct that screamed, 'fight!' at every possible moment.

"What is it with you Federation lot?" Thea blustered, losing her hardened glare. "I'm not some animal to be gawked at!" Despite both Officers Geenam and Hoth holding her tight, recollecting herself, she got as close to the Captain's face as she possibly could, trying to look her fiercest.

"Get your nose out of my business and I promise to stay out of yours, or I swear you'll get it." Then she spat at him, her saliva oozing down his cleanly shaven cheek.

"Oi!" Either Geenam or Hoth yelled and and then Thea was kicked in the back of the knees, her legs buckling underneath her as she slammed down onto the dirty floor.

Pain shot through her legs and up to her neck, her body completely jarred by the impact.

She knew she shouldn't have done it, her conscience always emerging as an afterthought, but what was there to lose anymore? Everything was already gone.

Captain Neyo wasn't disgusted, nor was he angry. He was fascinated by this Thea Wren. A girl with a red-hot temper and the unfortunate knack for spitting on people's faces and stealing their precious cargo. He sighed forlornly.

Then he got an idea.

"Lieutenant Hawkins." He said.

"Captain?" Jim answered instantly.

Captain Neyo wiped the spit off his cheek with a handkerchief from his coat pocket.

"Have Thea Wren cleaned and dressed and brought to my office in precisely one hour. I have a proposition I'd like her to hear."

"Yes, Cap- wait, excuse me, sir?"

Turning away from the girl and his baffled lieutenant, Captain Neyo repeated, "One hour, Lieutenant Hawkins." And then he was out the door.


	3. Chapter 3

So far, this was shaping up to be the worst day of Thea Wren's life. Well, at least it was the worst day that she could remember. She could've possibly had a lot worse days, but being betrayed by your father figure (no matter how much you loathe him), being arrested (with the fate of a lifetime in prison hanging over your head), meeting the most annoying Lieutenant in the world (and learning you swindled him), and then meeting his Captain who so happened to have a mysterious proposition for you, made up for a pretty awful, albeit, interesting day.

And what the Captain said about getting her 'cleaned and dressed'?

 _Ha!_

It wasn't as if she was filthy and naked! Thea knew she probably looked a little dingy, but she was wearing clothes despite his rude command indicating that she wasn't clothed at all. And! He had been addressing Lieutenant Hawkins!

 _The day that boy is in charge of any aspect of my life is the day Cero Stratus goes supernova_.

Thea's scowl was waiting for him as he turned from the door and back to her.

"Would you stop looking at me like that!?" He barked. "It's not like this was my idea at all. I was going to arrest you then tell you off then hand you over to the Mosli Police Force. I'm a Lieutenant of the Interstellar Federation, dealing with criminals like you isn't even my job. I was doing this as a favor and figured I'd enjoy bringing in the person who made me look like an idiot!" He was ranting and his arms were flailing about, making Thea want to laugh, but she just kept on scowling. He huffed out a breath.

"This is so not how I thought this day was gonna go." He said, bringing up a hand to rub his face in exasperation.

"Yeah, well that makes two of us, handsome." His green-blue eyes blaze something terrible and angry at her making her take a few cautionary steps back, regardless of her handlers.

Before he could really go off on her, Officer Geenam (or was it Hoth?) interjects, "Lieutenant, what are your orders?"

"My orders?" Lieutenant Hawkins said, looking a little puzzled.

"Yes, sir. We're supposed to have her presented to the Captain in an hour."

"Or less." Officer Hoth (or Geenam?) added.

"Well, Lieutenant, we could always go back to my place." Thea winked at him, the green of her eyes flashing intense and seductive. All for show, of course.

James Hawkins, former delinquent and ruffian, and now having been pushed far from the desire to act the cool, calm, and collected gentleman he has learned to become, heard this and got an idea.

He lets his eyes roam up and down her form freely, making sure that she noticed his less than proper gaze.

"You know, that sounds like a great idea." He saw her demeanor change instantly, and he had tried not to smirk.

"Excuse me?" She gasped.

"Might as well have a bit of fun before you get shipped off to Ream Keo for possibly the rest of your life. And we do have an hour." He winked at her for good measure.

Thea was shocked, to say the least.

"A little less." The officer on her left muttered.

"Gentleman," Lieutenant Hawkins whirled around, addressing his small convoy, "you are dismissed."

The 13 guards that had been lingering at the entrance of the establishment saluted their commanding officer and left single file through the door. Thea noticed that the guards on her left and right, Geenam and Hoth, made no effort to follow their fellows.

The officer to her right, Geenam, Thea thought, stepped away from her, leaving only Hoth to hold onto her cuffs. "Jim, are you sure this is a good idea?"

Thea noticed how informally he had addressed his superior officer.

The Lieutenant put a hand on the man's shoulder. "I think I can handle myself."

Thea scoffed and rolled her eyes. They both looked at her and the Lieutenant gave his friend a reassuring smile.

"Hoth, you can remove those cuffs."

"Are you sure, sir?"

The Lieutenant nodded.

Thea felt the pressure around her wrist instantly vanish as the cuffs were undone. A sigh of relief went through her and she cradled her wrists. They weren't on long enough to cause any harm, but old habits and all that.

"How do you know I won't make a run for it?"

"Because I know you are as interested as to what this proposition is as I am. Running would be counterintuitive."

"Ooh, what a smart Lieutenant using his big words." She teased, waving her freed hands at him.

He ignored her then told both Geenam and Hoth to go back to the barracks for assignment. They both saluted him but Geenam shakes his hand amicably before they both go.

Now that Thea was free to move, she went back to the table where she and Spratt had been less than twenty minutes ago, unaware of the nervous glances of the patrons she passes on her way there.

She could see the grooves in the table from where his claws had dented the old wood, making her mind darken.

"ARGH!" The sound that ripped through her throat was guttural, flooded with anger and sadness. She was so frustrated all she wanted to do was cry and tear this place apart. Instead, she slammed a fist down onto the table, her anger completely clouding her senses. She knew her hand would be throbbing in a few minutes, but she didn't care.

Her life hadn't been perfect, but she had been content. She had done what she was told. She had been loyal to Spratt and his gang of thieves and misfits. Why had she been punished like this?

Around her, she didn't hear Lieutenant Hawkins reassuring the patrons of the bar, all she heard was the pounding of her heart in her ears and all she felt was the numbness that coated her body, and the cold, wet path of the tears that trailed down her cheeks. Spratt's words kept replaying in her mind.

 _I had great hopes for you._

 _I am sorely disappointed._

What had she done to deserve any of this? The botching of her last mission hadn't warranted such obliteration of her freedom, and she had definitely messed up before, but so did everyone that worked for Spratt. She had never come back from a job empty-handed. He had had no reason to do this to her and that was what made her want to rip his yellow tiger-eyes from his skull.

 _I'll kill you for this Thelonious Spratt._

Flopping down into her chair from earlier, she stared at the table letting her mind wander back to when she thought her life had been simple. Steal this, get paid for that. Everything had come spiraling down in a matter of minutes just to land in a raw pile of twisted emotions and sickening nothingness at the pit of her stomach.

She was dazed and her mind was weary. So much so that she didn't register Lieutenant Hawkins standing on the opposite side of the table nor did she hear the revival of the friendly banter and clinking glasses to the bar.

As she sat there, the Lieutenant observed her, curious and a little perplexed as to how her demeanor had changed so suddenly. She had been yelling and slamming her fist on the table seconds before but now she sat in that chair like a ragdoll. He felt like he watched her too much to not know what kind of person she was. He knew she was a thief and a con artist, a gangster, but there was something else too.

The riled up angry girl from before had disappeared and had been replaced by someone who looked young and so broken. He didn't feel sorry for her (she had punched him in the face for Star's sake), but he was intrigued by her, if ever so slightly.

When he had first been promoted to Lieutenant and put under the command of Captain Neyo, the first thing the Captain had told him was that people got to where they were not only because of the choices they made, but also because of the choices that people had made for them. Jim hadn't really known what he had meant at the time, he had just gone with it, replying 'yes sir', knowing full well that the Captain was notorious for spouting nuggets of wisdom sporadically, but as he stood there and simply looked at Thea Wren, he believed he understood what his Captain had meant by it. That didn't mean he felt sorry for her, nor did it mean he was going to be any less lenient with her. She was a criminal, and on top of that she had stolen from him and made him look like a fool in front his fellow officers, and that was something he couldn't easily forget, but he did understand her. He knew what it was to feel like you were alone in the whole galaxy, void of any hope.

He could see that familiar bleakness reflected in her dull green eyes and the way her shoulders sagged. He remembered what having no future felt like.

Then her face changed. Her brow furrowed, her green eyes now bright. Suddenly her hand snatched something from off the table, something that he hadn't noticed, and apparently she hadn't noticed it either. She brought it directly up to her face and turned it over and over in her hands, examining it intently like a child would.

Jim couldn't see what it was so he asked her, "What is that?"

Thea, completely unaware of his presence until just then, jumped a little in her seat, nearly dropping what she held in her hands, something Spratt had left behind. Intentionally.

"It's a badge, I guess." She said, answering his question.

"I gave it to Spratt when I was ten. He asked for something of mine, a token of sorts, that would symbolize my obligation to him and in return, he wouldn't kill me."

Jim was a little shocked by both what she was telling him and that she was even telling him in the first place.

"I gave this to him. It was all I had. All I could find really. I was so scared. I had nothing except this, and I gave it to him without a second thought. And now he's given it back to me in exchange for my freedom." She slid it across the table and Jim stopped it before it flew off.

"This is an Interstellar Federation medal."

He stared at it for a second before realizing that it was a Medal of Valor. The depiction of the five galaxies of the Federation on the front was worn but still recognizable. The red and white stripes of the tail are dirty, but this was definitely a Medal of Valor. They're only awarded to Captains and Commanders that have demonstrated complete selflessness and honor in war. He looked at the back and there was part of a name although it was barely visible.

"Where did you get this?"

"I can't remember." She shook her head. "All I know is that I found it in my pocket and it saved my life." She stuck out her hand and wiggled her fingers, wanting the medal back. He reached over the table slowly with it in his hand and she grabbed it from him violently.

"Just chill out." He told her, then he asks, hesitantly, "Does that name on the back mean anything to you?"

Thea shrugged. "It might have, but it doesn't anymore."

"And that doesn't bother you?"

She looked at the medal closely and stared at the name, 'R. Jameson', engraved on the back. Nothing about it was familiar, nothing at all, and it bothered her more than Lieutenant Hawkins would ever know.

"No," was all she said

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Thank you to all who are taking the time to read this story! It's been really fun to write so far and I'm excited to be getting into the deeper parts of the plot and the characters, so stay tuned!

Happy reading,

Legless Legolass


	4. Chapter 4

Thea and Lieutenant Hawkins flagged down a coach after they left the scene at the bar, both of them secretly thankful to be leaving it behind (each for their own personal reasons). When the driver asked the Lieutenant where they were headed, Jim looked to Thea.

She hadn't dared tell him her actual street, let alone her real building number. Neither of those things were meant to be public knowledge, to the Interstellar Federation or anyone else, even if the toad-like drive did look rather simple.

So instead, Thea had given him the street and house number of a place a block away from her apartment. She had picked one out as a backup plan in case the need ever arose or if anyone ever asked. Not that many people casually asked her where she lived or that she invited many people over for tea and sweet cakes that often (never, actually), but members of rivaling gangs or vengeful victims of her thievery would think her home address a useful piece of information if they ever got their hands on it.

Even though the address she gave the driver wasn't hers, it was a part of the same neighborhood and she didn't fail to notice the Lieutenant's eyebrow raise in surprise when she quietly muttered to the driver, "Take us to the Ayvon District. Building 29…" And then with another look at the Lieutenant's sour face, she added a mumbled, "please".

The driver gave her a wide smile, complimented by a display of missing teeth. She smiled back quickly before rushing into the coach, wanting to procure a position as far away from her 'babysitter' as possible.

She pulled her hood up over her unruly hair the second she sat down, hoping, for both the Lieutenant's sake and hers, that he got the message of her wanted privacy.

Honestly, what had he expected? Did he think she spent all of her hard-earned money on a mansion out in the country? Or maybe he saw her better fitted to a life lived in a shack on the outskirts of the city. Certainly not. To both. One was too conspicuous, and the other, far too cliché.

If Thea knew anything about being a thief, and a successful one at that, knowing how to blend into one's surroundings was basically law. And living in a row of sensible apartments close to Mosli's biggest city was as close to blending in and being "normal" as she could manage without physically and mentally imploding. It was always harder to find something when it was hidden in plain sight. Or at least, that's something Spratt had always told her…

 _That bastard_. She knocked her head against the glass of the window, not even caring to notice what kind of face the Lieutenant was giving her now.

Spratt had brought her to Mosli's capitol, Leeso, after her three-week journey aboard his ship. The voyage had been brutal, and she hated that it was one of the few things from her childhood that she could remember. After Spratt had given the order to his crew that no one was to lay a hand on her, no one had paid any attention to her at all. It was like they pretended a ten-year-old-girl hadn't snuck onto their ship and her unexpected appearance in their master's cabin had all been a dream. Being a child of barely ten years old, she had been scared out of her wits, too afraid to do anything but spend the long days and nights wide-awake within the confines of a closet in Spratt's quarters. Only he had made an effort to tolerate her presence, if one could call it that. He checked on her every day over their long journey to Mosli. He had made sure she ate and drank and that she hadn't died of shock.

Every time Spratt came to see her he demanded her name and every time she had given him the same answer.

" _Tell me your name."_

 _"I-I don't have one. I-I can't remember. I swear. Please, please let me out."_

 _Every day it had been the same. Bread. Water. Demand._

" _Tell me your name, girl."_

" _I can't!"_

Days into their voyage, when Spratt came to see her, she had tried to attack him. He had demanded she tell him her name and then she had lunged for him, screaming and yelling at him, telling him she couldn't remember.

Something had snapped inside her when he had opened the door to the closet. Everything she couldn't remember had been nagging her for the past weeks and she couldn't take it anymore. She knew she knew her name, she had to, but she couldn't remember what it was, and it was tearing her mind apart.

Hot tears had been streaking down her dirty cheeks, and her fists had been hammering into Spratt's chest when the words had flashed bright in the shadows of her mind.

 _Thea._

 _My name is Thea._

She had ceased her beating of Spratt and breathed out her name and then collapsed.

She had spent the remainder of the voyage sound asleep on a couch in Spratt's private room. A major improvement as compared to being crammed between the miscellaneous items of the closet.

Not even an hour after they had docked, he had deposited her in the front room of an empty apartment. He had left her there alone saying that he would be back later that evening with everything she needed. She'd sat in front of the door for hours, waiting for him to come back and trying with all her might to remember anything else she could about before. She kept on repeating her name to herself, over and over again.

 _My name is Thea. Thea. That's my name._

She had memorized all the grooves and nicks on the back of the door by the time Spratt had come back with a throng of burly men, all of them together carrying enough furniture to fill the little apartment comfortably.

The apartment she and the Lieutenant were headed to now was the same one she had been dropped off at almost eleven years ago. Not much of it had changed since then. Some of her favorite sketches and paintings she had done now lined sections of the walls, and she had built a bookshelf a few years back to help keep track of some of the hundreds of books she owned, but other than that most of it remained. The support beams that ran down the middle of the apartment had nicks, scratches, and dents telling of her many ventings over the years. The blue quilt on her the bed looked identical to the day it was laid there by Spratt, save for some pattern that had been worn off at the edges. The plain kitchen table sat in the same spot with its lonely, single seat. The door was the same except it now bore a tick for every day since her past had become a mystery and everything that had disappeared with it.

 _Her parents. Her family. Her childhood. Her home. Her life._

Thea had grown up fast, Spratt had made sure of that. He had trained her himself, and by the time she was fourteen years old, she knew one-hundred-and-one ways to use a knife, and how to pick a person's pocket while looking them straight in the eye. He had shaped her into a demon of deception and trickery.

Just a few hours earlier she had felt privileged to be his protégé, his legacy, but now, after all the anger and fury, all she wanted to do was hide from this world he had shaped her for and never come back.

He had almost done her a favor. He had freed her from her contract and his gang and the life that she had never wanted, but in the process of granting her her freedom, he had condemned her to criminal confinement. How ironic.

Concentrating on the glass of the window, Thea saw the reflection of sad, pathetic, green eyed girl staring back at her. This golden-skinned, freckle-faced girl had no past and no future. Looking farther out, past the reflection, she saw the place she called home. The crowded streets, packed with people of every different race and species; the sounds of people yelling at one another, both friendly and vicious; They pass by tthe art shop where she had stolen her first set of oil paints. All of them had been a part of a past that she actually could remember.

This place had been home to her for all of her memorable existence, and everything about the imminent goodbye felt wrong.

She didn't deserve to leave, at least not like this.

Her mind wandered from the vision of the oversaturated streets before her to the image her mind rendered of sterilized confinement of her future prison cell on Ream Keo. Thinking of it felt like pinpricks on her skin reaching down to the core of her bones.

She had to find a way out of this. She deserved to be free. Free from Thelonious Spratt and free from all charges against her. Free to figure out who she really was without someone telling her who she was supposed to be.

Her eyes drifted from the buildings that were flashing by to meet the gaze of the Lieutenant who was staring at her intently.

"Holy Stars, would you quit that!?"

"I just can't seem to figure you out." He said, leaning in close, placing his elbows on his knees.

"I don't need figuring out, thank you very much." She crossed her arms and looked back out the window. "You just stick with what you know and I'll stick with what I know and we'll call it even."

"How about let's not?" In one fluid motion, he hopped from his seat across from her to the one directly next to her.

Completely startled, Thea scooted as close to the window as she could, her eyes wide. "This is my side!" She blurted out. "That's your side over there. Go back to your side!" She motioned frantically to the seat he had been sitting at only moments ago.

"But you won't be able to avoid me so easily if I'm right next to you."

"Aren't you still mad at me? I stole from you. I punched you in the face!" She tried to think of any excuse to get him back to the other side of the coach. She'd never been one for being in close proximity to other people, especially attractive young men that she had so happened to have assaulted. She had also never been one to back down or say no to a challenge, especially when she knew she has had the upper hand, but at this moment in time, the cards were no longer being dealt with her in mind.

"Of course, I'm still mad." He touched his splotchy cheek gingerly. "But, I have a lot of questions for you." He inched closer.

"Well, I probably don't have any answers. So sorry."

Thea rushed over to the other side of the coach, leaving Lieutenant Hawkins leaning over an empty space by the opposite window.

"How'd you meet Thelonious Spratt?" He asked.

"Cutting right to the chase aren't ya?"

He just shrugged. "Being direct works pretty well for me."

Thea shot him a condescending look. "Psh, yeah I'm sure it does."

He tried to move over to her side again, but she put a foot up to block his path.

"I'll talk if you stay over there."

He settled back into the seat. "Fine, so-"

"But!" She lifted up a finger, shutting him up, "I have questions too. How about a question for question?"

He stuck out his right hand. "Deal." He said as she grabbed his hand hesitantly. They shook on it.

"My question first.." He said. "So how did you get involved with Spratt?."

Thea rolled her eyes. "Fine, whatever. But it's not that great of a story."

He listened intently, though, like it was. She told him of how she met Spratt in the not-most-pleasant of situations. After he had "saved" her life, he had locked her in his quarters, not allowing her to speak to any of the crew. She spent most of her time in a closet and he had barely even talked to her, except when he had tried to ask her questions about who she was. She had hated Spratt since the beginning, a loathing that came out of childish fear, like how a normal child would feel towards the monster that lived under their bed. After she had attacked Spratt and had remembered her name, she had slept for three days straight, not remembering much besides the softness of velvet cushions and the warmth of a blanket cocooned around her. One of the first good memories she could recall.

"And you don't remember anything before that?" Lieutenant Hawkins asked, looking a little concerned.

"Not a thing except for my name. Everything before that is all blank."

"That –," he paused, "that's awful."

"Yeah, but once you've lived without a past for so long, it doesn't really matter anymore." She traced the stitching along the cushions of the seat so she didn't have to meet his gaze. Besides, she knew what it looked like; piteous. And she didn't want his pity.

"Does it really not matter anymore?" He asked, a worried tone lacing his clear voice.

"Nope." She answered more out of habit than as an actual response. She wanted to tell him differently. She wanted to tell someone, even if that someone was Lieutenant Hawkins of the Interstellar Federation, how much it did matter that the first part of her life was a complete mystery to her, but she couldn't tell him that.

So instead she saidays, "Okay, that's two questions I've answered for you, now it's my turn."

"I'm an open book." He provideds haughtily, placing his hands behind his head, looking completely relaxed.

"Where are you from?"

"Montressor."

"Would you like to elaborate?"

"Nope. You have to learn to ask better questions." He settleds deeper into his seat and closeds his eyes as if he was's about to take a nap. _Cocky_.

She decideds to probe a little deeper. "What was your childhood like?" She had never really talked to someone about their childhood before. She wanted to have a hint as to what hers may have been like, or maybe what hers wasn't like.

His eyes opened instantly and he didn't look as relaxed anymore.

"Was that a better question?" She asked.

He gave a weary smile, "A question with a more complex answer maybe, but not necessarily better."

"Yeah, yeah, same thing. So, go on."

He told her he was born and raised on Montressor at the inn that his mother owned. No siblings, but there had been the occasional pet whenever his mom had let him keep some wild thing that he had found while he had been wandering around.

"Half the time they were dangerous, and the other half of the time my mom let them go when I was off at school."

A small smile took over his face whenever he talked about his mom and his eyes lit up a little bit when he mentioned her.

"Are you and your mom close?" Thea leaned in, shrinking the space between them.

"I haven't seen her in a while, but, yeah, we're pretty close. After my dad left, it was just her and me. She kept us, and the inn, from completely falling apart, and me, being a stupid kid, didn't make it a very easy job for her." His expression became unfocused like he was thinking of a specific situation where this had proved true.

"What does that mean?" Thea questioned.

He snapped out of it. "Uh-uh, it's my turn now."

He shifted in his seat, leaning in for a second, and she unintentionally smelled him. He smelled clean, probably due to his Federation-grade uniform, but it was accompanied by the sweet tang of sweat, compliments of the hot Mosli atmosphere, and a sort of musky aroma she guessed was all him.

She settled back into her chair noticing, as her head passed the window, how close they are were to her neighborhood. Her heart pounded in her chest.

"What was the first thing you ever stole?"

* * *

Dun, dun, dun!

What could Thea have done to brand her as such a notorious thief and scoundrel? You'll just have to wait and read.

Legless Legolass


	5. Chapter 5

She held the pencils in her hand. The deep violet next to the bright orange made her think of a sunset. A beautiful, spectacular sunset with all the shades of blues, purples, oranges and pinks that the eye could detect.

With a quick look around, she stuffed the violet and orange into the pocket hidden between the folds of her skirt, joining them with a red, a yellow, and green pencils she had snatched at a previous shop.

She straightened out the wrinkles in her skirt with her hands and then reached up to tighten the bow of her hat that her mother had cinched up that morning.

Edging her way towards the door, feeling ever so sneaky and accomplished, she nodded to the lady at her left who nodded to her in return. Being of polite society, she had been taught to pay her respects to the ladies and gentleman that she passed during her time in town. But before she could reach for the handle on the door, a firm grip caught her by the arm which was followed by a gruff voice that she knew very well belonged to the shopkeeper.

"Miss Jameson, what in this Good Galaxy, do you think you are doing?"

She looked up at him, feigning confusion. "Mr. Mills, whatever do you mean?" She hoped the face she was giving the shopkeeper lived up to the standards of artificial innocence her brother had taught her.

"Turn out your pockets, young lady."

Without hesitation, she went to turn out her pockets.

So far the only benefit she had found in the sewing lessons her mother insisted she take, was learning how to make embroidered pockets, and now that her dress had three pockets instead of the standard two, her career as an amateur pilferer was so much easier.

If she was going to make the effort to steal something, she was going to be smart about it.

She pulled out the fabric that lined the inside of her pockets, revealing to Mr. Mills that, they were indeed, void of anything. "See sir? Empty."

A young man came up to stand next to her. "Now, Mr. Mills, I believe you owe my sister an apology. Accusing a lady of stealing, why I'd say something to my father if I knew you weren't, deep down, a respectable gentleman yourself. Now, what do you say to that apology?" The young man's green eyes were bright and merry, but they did not lack that hint of deviousness, a trait shared by both Jameson children.

Mr. Mills' deep set eyes flickered from her to her brother, then he settled his gaze on her. "My apologies, Miss Jameson. Please excuse these old eyes. They do play tricks on me." His smile, despite its years of cheerfulness, was more contemptuous now as he looked at her.

"All is forgiven, Mr. Mills." She cooed, and never one to deny a little flourish, curtsied too.

Mr. Mills nodded his head towards the Jameson children before he sulked off to where he had been monitoring his shop behind the desk.

She took her brother's arm and he led her out of the art supply shop. Once they cleared the steps and were walking down the road, he turned to her and flicked her in the nose – hard.

Her gloved hands flew upwards to cover it from any following abuse. "What was that for?!"

"For acting like such a spoiled brat. You're almost nine years old now, Ora. When are you going to start acting your age? And when am I going to have to stop looking out for you?

"You don't always have to look out for me, Ryker." She chided. "Like you said, I'm almost nine. I know how to take care of myself." She straightened her bonnet and began to walk away from him, her stinging nose held high, but he kept a steady pace behind her, following her step by step, like older brothers do.

 _Never let her out of your sight._ Mother's words always seemed to echo in his mind.

"Well, what's going to happen when he finds those pencils on the floor where you so conveniently dropped them?" He caught up to her and she stopped.

"He won't." She said simply, her nose still upturned.

"Won't what?"

"Find them." She turned to him and went on her tiptoes to whisper in his ear. "They're in a different pocket." He looked at her and found the sliest of smiles on her face.

"Oh, I've created a monster." She giggled and threaded her arm through his once more.

"Don't tell mother." She said, not looking up at him.

With an over exaggerated gesture, he brought his right hand to rest upon the spot over his heart, "Oh my honor as your older brother and protector."

She beamed up at him and squeezed him arm. He couldn't help but smile back at her as he squeezed right back.

* * *

"Thea!"

The Lieutenant's snapping fingers were inches away from her face.

"What!?" Yelling, she slapped his hand away.

"You were completely out of it for a whole block. I was talking and you spaced out. Where did you go?"

She thought about that. Where had she gone? Was that…had that been a memory?

"I- I don't know. I'm not sure."

The Lieutenant resituated himself in his seat. "Well, you were in some sort of daze. I was debating with whether or not I was going to have to slap you out of it if snapping didn't work. Maybe then we would have had matching bruises." He smiled at her, a smile she probably would have noticed, and one that probably would have made her blush, her mind was racing with thoughts about what she had just possibly relived.

"Hey, you okay? You seem sort of distracted."

"Do I?" She bit out.

He scoffed. "Yeah, that's what I just said."

"Well I am distracted! You're distracting me, so shut up!"

"Okay, well, excuse my concern." He murmured while straightening his uniform jacket before he crossed his arms and turned to look out the window.

Thea let out a huff before she followed suit and looked out her own window.

She hadn't really meant to be rude. Since they had gotten in the coach, he had only been open and genuine with her and she had reciprocated his playful banter with a curt 'shup up' and he had done it. He didn't really deserve it and that really wasn't what she had wanted.

It had felt good to be heard and never had anyone (not even backstabbing pseudo-dad Thelonious Spratt) expressed what felt like true concern for her and her sob story of an existence. And here was a person that was finally giving her the time of day. A person that was (she would begrudgingly admit) slightly attractive, and attentive as well, and surprisingly hadn't turned out to be a complete jerk, and she was acting treating him like trash and acting like an idiot. Maybe she should apologize? But what was the point in that? They didn't necessarily have to be on good terms. Once she was able to form some sort of escape plan, she was going to leave him and Mosli behind, maybe to finally try and find some answers as to who she had been and then figure out who she was going to be from there.

And on top of all that, had she had a flashback? She hadn't had one of those in over ten years.

Had that truly been her stealing those pencils? Had Jim's question triggered the memory? Could it happen again? She had so many questions. And if the memory was hers and she had been the one stealing the pencils, then that meant that she had a brother and she had been proper and she had had a mother and she had worn skirts and bonnets.

If that had been her in her old life, she also knew now that she must have always had a knack for crime, which, in all honesty, was a little disappointing.

Thea's mind was so busy dissecting what she had possibly relived that she hadn't realized the coach had stopped till the driver wrenched open the side door with enough force to startle both her and the Lieutenant.

"We're here Miss. Ayvon District, Building 29."

Thea nodded at him and looked at Jim, but he wasn't looking at her…for once.

He quickly made his way out the open door, his boots sending up a cloud of red dirt as his feet hit the ground. Without even thinking about it, he turned around and offered up a hand to assist her. He mentally knocked himself on the head for it. Damn his formal training as an officer. He noticed her green eyes flash from his face to his outstretched hand.

Trying to be as graceful as possible she slid on the bench towards the open door and gathered up her cloak in one hand while she reached for the Lieutenant's outstretched one with the other. She gave him a small smile as she stepped out onto the street, but he wasn't giving into that, so her minor attempt to smooth things over between them was met with a steely gaze and lips pressed into a hard line.

Fine. If he was going to play that game, she could too. The instant her feet hit the ground she snatched her hand out of his and started to briskly walk down the street, leaving the Lieutenant behind.

This could have possibly been her chance to leave, but her time in the coach had been spent between being flustered by the attentions of the Lieutenant to reliving a possible memory, and escape plans had not been on her mind, even though they very well should have been.

The hot, dry wind whipped at Thea's hair and cloak as she made sharp turns down the narrow street. She knew the Lieutenant was probably trying to catch up, but she wasn't going to slow down. Most definitely not.

With her mind elsewhere while she had been walking, Thea had failed to notice the sound of light footfalls behind her. Footfalls that did not match her babysitter's. And now that she thought about it, shockingly, the Lieutenant hadn't yelled at her to slow down or said something else she would have ignored. Thea turned around to tell him off but instead of finding the Lieutenant huffing and puffing behind her, there was a skinny, hunched over, shady looking character, holding a pair of jagged knives.

In truth, Thea was surprised it had taken so long for someone of questionable intentions to show up looking for her. After the termination of her contract with Spratt, news of her unemployment, and subsequent lack of protection must have reached the ears of every lowlife hitman of Mosli looking for their next job, and for this particular individual, she was his.

"How much?" She demanded, knowing he would know what she meant.

"Enough." He hissed.

She rolled her eyes. "Ah, come on. If I'm about to be hacked to pieces by your little knives, I'd like to know how much you're getting paid for it."

He hesitated, then said, "1,000 gold pieces." It's like she had been hit in the stomach.

"Ha! Seriously?" He wasn't objecting. "That's insulting!" She barked. "Who's ridiculous price is that?"

With a nasty sneer on his face, he started to creep towards her. "I was told this would be an easy job."

"Not really an answer to my question, but I'll go ahead and tell you your benefactor is both a liar and a cheater. So let's try this again, who's paying you? A name would really be helpful here."

He was about 10 yards away from her.

"Dunno," he shrugged while nonchalantly twisting the knives around his fingers, "I go lookin' for a job, someone offers me one, and when it's worth that much I don't ask questions."

"Typical first rate hitman. Always get the name of the person paying you, silly."

He was getting ever closer.

"You know, you do so many things for the criminal community, so many jobs, and you think you have the respect of your fellow no-do-gooders, but then the price on your head barely amounts to anything. I'm honestly offended." He ignored her.

Less than 5 yards away now.

But before he could get any closer, she added. "You know, I'm truly sorry they offered you so little."

He looked at her like she had gone crazy, but shook it off and replied with, "I'm sorry it's gonna end like this.", in that sort of cliché way that she hated, and then he jumped into action.

His skinny legs propelled him up and forward. Both of his arms were raised high as if to strike her down as he landed, but she hadn't been Spratt's top lackey due to her dazzling personality and girlish charm.

She moved out of his way before his feet even touched the ground and as he went to turn on her, knives poised and ready, she kicked him with full force in the stomach. The momentum of it sent him hurtling backward, knives flying from his hands as a choked breath whooshed out of him. Thea bolted towards the knives and before he even had time to recover, they were both in her possession and now pointed at him; one poised perfectly under his jaw and the other at his lower back.

"You move," she breathed out, "and you're dead."

The hitman's bulging eyes blinked from her face to the knife by his throat, to what she was now guessing was Lieutenant Hawkins catching his breath behind her. Thea tossed her head to the side and looked at him with contemptuous eyes.

"Thanks for finally joining us Lieutenant. You really haven't missed much."


	6. Chapter 6

"I let you out of my sight for 5 minutes and you get into a knife fight." His tone was already grating on her and he hadn't said but one sentence.

"For the record, Lieutenant, I didn't start it, and I would hardly call this a fight," Thea looked at her captive, "and if I were calling it a fight, it was the most pathetic fight I've even witnessed. What would you say?" Thea addressed the once-so-confident-now-nearly-whimpering hitman, who was, to his credit, smart enough to not answer. She continued. "Too bad this guy never had a chance."

She pressed the knives closer to his skin. "Seriously, you think getting me is worth a mere 1,000 gold pieces? You were completely jilted."

"Give me the knives, Thea." He stepped closer, a hand outstretched. "We're on a tight schedule here."

"You may be, but I'm not. I have to teach this idiot a lesson first." She glared at the shaking hitman.

Jim growled, "I said give me the knives, Thea.", raising his voice just a little bit, but just enough for her glare to shift from her pursuer to him.

Before releasing the squirming hitman, she purposefully nicked him under the jaw and pricked him in the back making him yelp pathetically as he jumped away.

Thea walked away briskly towards the Lieutenant as her assailant ran off in the opposite direction, probably on his way to spreading even more unwanted publicity about her current situation. If he had been smart enough to notice the uniform the Lieutenant was sporting, the rumors and the talk were definitely going to be interesting.

As she passed by him, she slipped the knives into two of the many secret pockets that lined the inside of her cloak. "You've been ruining my fun all day, so I'm taking these as compensation."

"Oh, yeah, I've definitely ruined your fun." He jested, giving her a sardonic smile. Well, maybe not-quite-a-smile, but his tone held a note of playful sarcasm that pulled at a corner of Thea's mouth into her own version of a not-quite-a-smile.

She had taken them the back, roundabout, and sideways way to get to her apartment. After the encounter with the single hitman, emphasis on single, Thea was taking almost every precaution to get home without hundreds of weapons weighing down the pockets of her cloak. When they finally reached the front door, she had a mind to make the Lieutenant go first (and he probably would have, given his gentlemanly training) just to make sure that if there were going to be any casualties during this little excursion, it wouldn't of her. But then she reconsidered it, knowing how terribly mean that sounded, even to her. She did have feelings and a sense of decency. At least most of the time, even when it came to certain Lieutenants of the Interstellar Federation.

She inspected the door for any signs of forced entry before removing the key from the heel of one of her boots, all the while trying to ignore the Lieutenant incessant foot tapping.

"You know we have less than half an hour to get you down to the Sector Hall?" He chided.

"Yes, Lieutenant, I know how to keep time."

He rolled his eyes at her instead of chastising her for being snarky. He knew they simply didn't have time for it.

The door sprung open as the locking mechanisms all moved into their designated places, revealing what Jim had expected to be a dark, cold room with sparse furnishings and maybe a few scattered reward postings plastered to the walls, but this place was completely unlike what he had imagined.

"Are you going to come in or stand out there and wait?"

Thea was hanging her cloak on a stand by the door. She looked completely out of place in her worn leather boots, dark pants, muddy green tunic and bedraggled expression. He stepped through the door into a place that looked like it belonged to someone far younger and far more innocent than Thea Wren, what with the room being encased by bright colored walls and almost every surface being overtaken by dozens of little potted plants. All of it further emphasizing the notion that she was far more than she seemed.

Out of everything that filled the small space, Jim was drawn to the far left wall. It was covered from floor to ceiling with drawings and paintings of all shapes and sizes. The ones on the bottom were more childish and abstract with imagination but they got more realistic the higher up he looked. He was probably looking at hundreds of different pieces of artwork of all different mediums, no two the same whether it be because of the subject or the style. There were beautiful canvased landscapes of far off places nestled among rough sketches and illustrations of anything and everything on scraps of old paper.

"Did you do all these?" He asked, his voice almost a whisper. His mind was boggled.

Thea looked at the wall and then at him, her expression so un-Thea-like it made him laugh, which, of course, only made her scowl in return.

"Hey, don't get mad. These are amazing." He stepped closer to the wall to examine a particular painting that had captured his attention.

Now it was her who looked a little star-struck. He thought they were amazing? The only other person who knew of her talent had been Spratt, and he'd never so much as batted an eye at her work. And yet here, again, was the Lieutenant going against her initial judgment of him. _Amazing?_

"Where did you learn to do all this?"

"I guess I kind of taught myself." She replied. "It was one of the few things I had a natural talent for when I was growing up, besides, you know, my other more utilized aptitudes for pilfering and committing arson." She thought she'd get a rise out of him for that, but he wasn't really paying attention, instead he was looking at one of her more recent paintings. It was a collection of stars scattered among a black sky. Simple really, but if you looked closely, the black wasn't as much black as it was a mix of blues, purples, greens, and oranges, all creating something so vast and mysterious and so undeniably beautiful.

She walked up next to him and asked tentatively, "What do you think?"

Thea had never wanted to know, nor did she usually ever care, what anybody thought of her or anything she did until she saw the way he looked at her painting. She liked to think that she had always been independently minded; perpetually unaware and uninterested in what people thought of her, but seeing the way Lieutenant James Hawkins was staring at something she had created without contempt or condescension made her want to know what exactly was going through his mind. She could see his eyes roam from one edge of the painting to the other, his look unfaltering. "Well?" She urged.

He peeled his gaze away from the stars and looked to her.

"Eh," he sighed, "it's okay."

She could tell he was joking by the way he flashed her a certain smile, but that didn't deter the heat that reddened her cheeks.

"Don't be such a prat." She knocked him in the shoulder ever so slightly, a little conscious of the action when she shouldn't have done it in the first place. The relationship between her and the Lieutenant was complicated enough after spending less than an hour together, she didn't need to feed the fire anymore, but for some reason, she couldn't help it.

"Come on, what do you really think?"

He looked back to her painting briefly before answering in a soft voice, "It reminds me of the first time I saw something like this. The stars all around me making my head swim, but in a good way, I guess. It makes me feel like I'm there again, and how much I miss going out there."

Unable to weather the possibility of looking into his startlingly turquoise eyes again, and chastising herself for using the verb startlingly (really?), she backed up till she reached the door of her bedroom and grabbed the handle. "You don't fly anymore?" She asked quietly.

He stuck his hands in the pockets of his, (wonderfully fitted, Thea just noticed), uniform pants and kicked haphazardly at something invisible on the floor.

"Well, not exactly. Been grounded for the last six months on account of something I pulled a while back." He had wandered over to one of her bookshelves and was now scanning the titles, whether it was because he was truly interested or just snooping, she wasn't exactly sure.

He sighed. "Once you get a taste of recklessness, it's hard not to go back to it."

He realized he shouldn't have said that when he noticed how her eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Anyway," he added quickly, "escorting that ship to the Coral Galaxy was going to be my first voyage back out there, but something about that didn't go quite as anticipated." He turned and gave her that coy smile again, the way it made his eyes light up had her forgetting all about his minor slip-up.

She leaned against the solidity of her door, grateful for its support to endure that smile. "Teasing me about it now, are you? Does that mean you've forgiven me?"

Was she flirting?

And had he forgiven her?

Jim thought about it. When he had walked onto the RLS Andromeda less than 72 hours ago, he had been furious and hell-bent on finding whoever had stolen those Helium-4 barrels. He had even gone so far as to persist, past the point of irritation on his Captain's part, that he be put him in charge of the investigation. When he had been granted leadership of it, it hadn't taken long for someone to drop the name "Thea Wren" accompanied with some hard evidence, and he didn't hesitate to have a warrant written out for her arrest. But since then? Since he had seen her in the moment her spirit had nearly deteriorated at that table?

Even though he had spent less than an hour with her, so much had been exposed about Thea Wren and her secret life, that his perception of her had changed, in spite of the fading bruise along his cheekbone. Initially, his mental image of her had been of some lawless thieving crook with a sinister smile and an attitude to match. She was still a thief, and basically lawless, and, technically, a crook, but what he had thought her to be when he discovered the missing Helium-4 didn't match who he was looking at now. With her back against a door, surrounded by all her books and artwork and plants, with her pretty green eyes anticipating his answer, she looked like a normal twenty-something-year-old girl, not a wanted felon.

Maybe that was just part of her guise? Maybe she was just playing him. But maybe that wasn't it at all. He was completely confused when it came to her, but he knew one thing at least; that to him she was someone who couldn't be classified by something as superficial as a criminal or a gangster. That barely scratched the surface of _what_ she was and _who_ she was. He knew what the Galactic Code told him he was supposed to think of her, but that wasn't how it was. Whether that was because of what he had seen in her and ultimately recognized in himself, or it was because he was good at getting himself into trouble, he wasn't sure, but he was sure that there was still more to figure out, and he had always been too curious for his own good. He took a deep breath.

"I—"

Thea's eyes had wandered to the clock just to the left of Jim's thoughtful expression. "Holy Stars! Is that really the time!?"

Jim followed her gaze to his right and his eyes bugged. "Are you serious?!" He looked back at to where Thea had been as she now bolted into the room behind her. "Be back, in like five seconds, I swear!" She yelled frantically just before the door slammed.

They had less than ten minutes to get all the way across to the other side of the city to Sector Hall, a trip that, Jim knew, took way more than the time they had.

"I am so dead."


	7. Chapter 7

True to her word, Thea had been quick about changing into something "suitable", and true to what _he_ had said, Jim had nearly signed his own death warrant. As they walked up and down the halls and stairways of the Federation Headquarters, they received many scrutinizing looks from several of the higher-ranking officers, but those had also been accompanied by the wondering looks and wolf-whistles of his peers. Whether they were approving of the situation of him leading a young woman through Headquarters or they were admiring the girl he had in tow who, despite having transformed in a coach, looked like an expensive and eligible aristocratic lady. Jim would be lying to himself if he hadn't been a little caught off guard when she had emerged from her room in a ruffle of pale blue skirts and dark brown curls, as if in the midst of changing out of her street clothes and into a dress she had also been hit by a tornado, and that bewilderment had only increased once he had seen the full effect of Thea: street-thug-turned-lady. She hadn't been all put together when she left the apartment but had finished her wardrobe change in the coach he had called for them in the few minutes she had been gone.

Threatening to maim him in one way or another if he didn't either close his eyes or turn around while she finished getting herself together, he chose to follow her orders (just this once) and by the time their ride had stopped, he had helped a fine-looking, if not slightly flummoxed lady out of the compartment.

"Don't just stare at me, we have to go!" She had said loudly despite his close proximity, a few curls already coming loose of her haphazard bun, urging him on through the doors of the station.

He had grabbed her by the arm in attempts to lead her through the halls, but she swiftly tugged her arm away, her expression telling him she had no need for a chaperone, but he had caught her arm again, shooting her an equally commanding look that she thankfully didn't oppose. His fingers held tight to her upper arm, not in a hurtful way, but in more of a protective fashion. The skin of his hand could feel every bit of electricity that radiated from under the soft fabric of her dress.

The more time Jim spent in her company, or just thinking about the prospect of it, the more complicated the air between them became. He had to admit that it was becoming harder and harder for him to keep a hold on those hateful feelings he had had towards her. It was hard for anyone to dislike someone they were attracted to… but he also didn't want to cut her a break just because of the figure she cut in her dress.

Since leaving her with her wild hair and matching expression to wait in the hallway outside Captain Neyo's office, he was having a hard time focusing on what Neyo was saying to him when his mind was somewhere else…the way her skirt, although slightly askew, fitted effortlessly around a waist that had been hidden by her baggy street clothes, and the way the bodice cut a deep "v" that showed off the light freckles that dappled her skin all the way from collarbone, to chest, and possibly even lower, down to…

"Lieutenant Hawkins," the Captain's voice clipped through Jim's fantasy, "repeat what I just said."

Neyo sat relaxed in his plush, purple, cushioned chair, his surprisingly delicate-looking fingers threaded together over the finely pressed pearl white linen of his spaceman's jacket. Even though his posture exuded relaxation, his tone demanded attention, a phenomenon his subordinates found to be very unsettling.

Jim's eyes were wide as he racked his brain for the answer. "Umm… was it something about Ms. Wren?" He guessed, his tone sounding just as worried as his expression shown.

Captain Neyo pushed himself up, corrected his posture, and moved his hands to grip a quill and dangle it over a pot of black ink. He wasn't an unintelligent man, quite the opposite actually, despite his attraction to grand schemes of speculation and the unexplainable, in fact, he rather prided himself on his brevity of wit, and he had been young once, like most adults had been at one time or another, and he knew for a fact that even if he hadn't been talking about Thea Wren, the subject of the young woman had been exactly what his lieutenant had been thinking about.

"Incorrect, my young sir. I was addressing the subject of your flying reinstatement." He dunked the quill in the pot and dated the top of the white sheet of parchment that lay in front of him in one swift movement. Out of the corner of his gaze, he saw Jim's eyes shut in contemplative anger, most likely recalling the incident that had initially revoked that privilege in the first place. The boy, despite his noticeable efforts, was too quick to show his emotions, no matter how much he tried to bottle them up.

"So," the captain continued quickly, trying to deter his lieutenant from returning to any further daydreaming, "your reinstatement."

Jim straightened his posture.

"I and some other officers vouched for your character and secured you a voyage, that will, in its essence, allow you to prove that you do deserve a place among the officers deemed suitable for management of a ship." Jim straightened up at this even more, his attention now fully on the matter at hand instead of on other things…

"Thank you, sir." He blurted out, genuinely appreciative, and somewhat surprised that there were more than a few high-ranking officers that had assured his abilities as an upright officer instead of the recent firebrand he had shown himself to be. He knew that for a Lieutenant to be cleared for ship duty that at least seven higher commanding officers needed to clear his name, and he could only think of two who would, maybe three.

"Who cleared me, sir?"

"You know that's classified, Jim." He provided without looking up at him, his attention on the page laying on his desk.

"Okay, well then tell me what the catch is." This got the captain's attention.

"The catch?" Captain Neyo asked, adding a tone of puzzlement to his voice that almost convinced Jim of naivety. "My dear boy, I have no idea what you mean." He defended himself sarcastically.

"Aw, come on sir. You know I know this system well enough. What do I have to do? What is this mission? I'll be finding out soon enough so you might as well tell me. No harm in doing that, right?" He appealed to what he knew of his superior officer and his contempt for unnecessary secrets. Neyo was convinced they wasted precious time.

Captain Neyo gestured to a chair. "Why don't you take a seat, Lieutenant."

* * *

The door behind Thea creaked open, but she didn't turn around to look at whoever had decided to emerge from the Captain's office. She was preoccupied with looking at the graduating class of 4 years ago, her attention stuck particularly on the person second from the right in the very front row. The description at the bottom of the picture indicated that person to be non-other than her current glorified babysitter; James Pleiades Hawkins. The boy in the picture was young, much more innocent looking than the person she knew now, but there was no mistaking that this was him. The prideful posture was still the same, there was no denying that, and even though the picture was small, she was still able to recognize him.

"Ms. Wren, will you please join me in my office?" Thea turned around, her skirts sweeping the floor around her feet in a fluid motion. Jim stood behind her, door open and she could see that inside the office, Captain Neyo stood in front of his desk in the same learned stance typical of all officers.

"Only if you insist, Captain." She said purposefully with a mocking tone only so she could watch Jim roll his eyes. Thea walked through the open door and turned her head in time to see Lieutenant Hawkins close it at his Captain's request.

"So what's this proposal you have for me?" She said as she plopped down in the chair and folded her hands in her lap.

"You get right to the point, don't you?" He asked her inquisitively.

"I was taught the time is precious. And that mentality is very true, especially when you're a criminal like I can't seem to forget that I am."

He ignored the way she blatantly classified herself as a criminal in front of him and responded to something else she had said. "Who taught you that?"

Thelonious Spratt appeared in her mind and in a second her expression turned sour and the Captain noticed, that she, like Jim, was not very good at hiding what she was thinking.

"You know very well who taught me that." She answered through clenched teeth.

"I'm having a hard time recalling his name." Captain Neyo tapped his chin with a forefinger. "So many crime bosses on this side of the galaxy, you know, it's hard to keep track."

 _Fine_. She thought. "Thelonious Spratt." She snapped. "Boss of the Kings" She swung one leg over the other and made an effort to smooth her skirt over her crossed legs, trying to make herself feel more at ease than she actually was.

"Ah yes! That's the one." The captain said as he walked around the desk and returned to his purple velveteen chair. "And tell me, how old were you when you were taken into his employ?"

Thea scoffed. "You make it sound so much nicer than it actually was."

"Well, then why don't you tell me how it actually was?" He dunked his quill into the pot of ink once more and poised it inches above a new sheet of parchment.

"How about not." Thea crossed her arms in defiance. Reliving that day once before was enough. She definitely wasn't going to willingly call those memories back up again to amuse the fetishes of some captain.

"Oh, but my dear, it would help this situation so much more if you provided me with as much detail as possible so I can help you—"

"Help me? You seriously think you can help me? You don't want to help me. You can't fix me or what I am. The deed's been done. I'm the monster they created me to be! I'm the product of terrible fate and even worse luck! They took whoever I was and whatever I was going to be and killed her!"

Thea had been up and about and storming around the office before she'd realized what she was doing. Everything had come spilling out all at once without her consent. Her heart was nearly beating itself out of her chest and she could feel her pulse in her ears.

They had killed whoever she was. That was what she had just said, but was that really what she thought?

So if they had killed who she was, who was she now?

 _Stupid_.

She knew the answer to that question. They had turned her into a weapon to fulfill their purposes, made her into a villain and a criminal, then they punished her by abandoning who they had taught her to be!

Her face was red and her eyes prickled with hot tears that were prepared to spill over in an instant.

Before turning to the Captain, she wiped under her eyes for any tears that might have escaped. The look he gave her was one of bewilderment. "I told you, Captain. You can't help me. I'm beyond it. Just give me this proposal of yours so I can leave."

He set the quill down delicately on his desk and Thea watched as the ink dripped off the tip onto the bare piece of parchment.

"Ms. Wren, I can help you because I know who you are."

* * *

It took all he had not to listen at the door once he had closed it behind Thea, and even more of him not to open it when he heard her muffled yells escaping from the space between it and the floor. Then everything went quiet from the other side and that was the most concerning part of it all.

What if Thea had killed the Captain? No, that was ridiculous. What if she had jumped out the window? Well, if that had happened, Captain Neyo would've alerted Jim of it. Hopefully. But the silence not only made him think of what was going on in the office, but it also gave him the quiet his mind required in order for it to sneak back to what Neyo had said to him.

" _Wait, so my reinstatement mission is to help Thea Wren find her family?"_

 _The Captain nodded, looking pleased with himself while he scribbled something down with his quill._

" _You've got to be joking." Jim blurted out._

 _The Captain looked up at Jim speculatively. "You know I don't joke, Lieutenant."_

" _You're being serious?"_

" _Completely serious. I thought you'd be pleased with this?"_

" _Well, I'm not!" He replied, agitatedly. "If what you're saying is that I'm supposed to fly her around the galaxy and help her uncover her lost identity, then no I'm not!"_

 _At this point, all thoughts of freckled chests had now been banished from his mind._

 _"Don't you remember she robbed my ship, Captain? She robbed the Interstellar Federation, and she punched me in the face!", he pointed to his healing bruise for emphasis, "And you want me to help her?"_

" _I want you to complete this mission and become a great officer, Jim, this is just going to help you get there."_

" _Oh, yeah, sure, just through the most inconvenient of ways…" He sulked down into his chair._

The conversation continued with a discussion of the details of the voyage and how much time would be allotted for it and where they would take off from.

It was to be a six-month voyage to launch from Montressor's spaceport in three weeks' time. The crew would be hired within this time and the hiring was to be done jointly by himself and by Captain Neyo and whomever Jim chose as his second in command, which was just another thing he had to do before took Thea off to Montressor and introduce her to his mother. It was obviously logical that they would be staying at the Benbow with his mom before they went off to the spaceport, but with Jim knowing his mother, him coming home with a girl in tow was not going to be any more fun than he was anticipating it to be, which was not very fun at all. It was a three-day ferry ride from Mosli to Montressor and all the while he would be acting as Thea Wren's Federation Protectorate. He didn't even think anything like that had existed until Captain Neyo dubbed him so in his office twenty minutes ago.

Three days on a ferry with Thea Wren, introducing her to his mother, then a six-month stay aboard a ship with her? Based on the majority of their time spent together, Jim felt it wise to assume that one of them will have killed the other by the end of it all.

* * *

Captain Neyo's words echoed in Thea's ears, but she couldn't manage to comprehend them.

"You know who I am?" She whispered.

"I do." Captain Neyo said. "Your father and mother too. Oh, and your brother."

 _Father. Mother. Brother._

"Please, Ms. Wren, why don't you come back to your chair. You'd feel better taking this sitting down, I think." He walked over to her and gingerly grabbed her shoulders and guided her slowly back towards the chair, and Thea, unanimated and completely shocked, sat back down. She couldn't look at him; she couldn't look anywhere. Her mind was blank, void of all thoughts and words.

"Well, I haven't always known who you were." Captain Neyo babbled on. "I got a letter, see, a letter from your, um, mentor, I guess we'll call him that, stating your true identity and birthplace, and a lot of other things."

"A letter?" She whispered. "From Spratt?"

The captain nodded and started rifling through the papers on his desk.

"It was on my desk after I returned from the bar where we first met." He referred to it as if he was speaking about the first meeting of two old friends.

"Turns out I knew your father actually, although I never did meet your mother."

"Stop." Thea commanded. "Please, stop." Her voice was barely louder than a sigh.

"Ah! Here it is!" The captain exclaimed, ignoring what Thea had said. "Here. Take a look." He held it out to her but she didn't grab it. "Go on," he urged gently, "it's addressed to you."

Thea looked up to the Captain, a soft smile on his face and his long fingers holding out the letter to her. She grabbed onto it as if it was as delicate as the thinnest glass. Her tear-sodden eyes roamed from the bottom of the letter to the top where her eyes finally focused and she saw it.

"Dear, Thea Jameson."

She read the words out loud. Her own name being formed by her own mouth and her own tongue for the first time in 11 years.

After the first tear hit the pale blue fabric of her dress, it was followed by all the rest.


End file.
